Window Docking Station HOOPOE ProGroup, 2010. Reference Manual and License Agreement 2010
Legal Notice Any part of the graphical user interface presented in this document and any name and brand may be claimed as the property of others. All such interface parts and names are used for illustrational purposes only and do not imply any obligation with regard to software compatibility, advertisement or any other aspect of use of the software in question. Authors made their best efforts to hide the identity of such interface parts to enable as general description as possible. This document describes software distributed under a license agreement which, along with the present document, must be an integral part of the software distribution package. A software package lacking the license agreement is considered counterfeit and must be immediately deleted. By the fact of using the software described in this document you accept all terms and conditions of the accompanying license agreement. For your convenience, the text of the accompanying license agreement is provided below. Definitions The present software comprises all materials related to Window Docking Station including but not limited to binary modules, visual interface and documentation. Terms of Use The use of this software requires registering a copy of the software and paying a registration fee. This license agreement grants non-exclusive rights of use of one registered copy of the present software to a single physical person at a time. Trial use of unregistered copies of this software is allowed for a reasonable period of time to assess the usability of the software. No copying or otherwise distributing registered copies of this software or parts thereof is allowed. No service directly employing either the functionality of the software or the results produced by the software can be provided to third parties under this license. No rights to derivative works are granted under this license agreement. Creation of competing products derived from the present software and/or based on any information obtained from the analysis of the present software is prohibited by default and is subject to a separate license agreement. All stricter legal limitations to the end-user non-exclusive license agreements of the user's appropriate jurisdiction apply. All intellectual property rights not specifically granted under this license agreement are reserved to HOOPOE ProGroup. Disclaimer The present software is provided "as is" with no warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to quality, performance, stability, compatibility with other software or hardware, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement of intellectual property rights.
Contents What Is This?... 4 Why Using It?... 4 How to Use?... 5 Quick Reference... 5 Control key reference... 5 Graphical user interface reference... 6 Command line interface reference... 8 Usage Scenarios... 9 Group as a single window... 9 Group to preserve layout... 10 Group by criteria... 10 How to Buy?... 12 How to Get Support?... 12
What Is This? This is a Window Docking Station, a utility for grouping multiple interface windows which are either logically connected or most convenient to be used together to increase productivity, eliminate unnecessary steps when performing routine work, and help our users keep focus on what s really important, without being distracted by extraneous interface information. With this utility one can combine several windows of different (or same) programs into a single group and move, show and hide all windows simultaneously as if they were one window; quickly and conveniently switch focus between windows of the group; and automate more complex manipulations, like combining windows by common criteria, assigning windows to multiple groups, or building group hierarchies. Why Using It? With Window Docking Station you can: 1) group any combination of interface windows (of the same or different programs) into a single window and save space on both the screen and the task bar; 2) preserve the screen layout of the grouped windows and hide/restore the entire group by pressing a hot key; 3) automatically group windows of a similar use/purpose, for instance all e-mail windows or instant message windows, etc.; 4) organize virtual displays and switch between them using hot keys or tabs in the task bar; 5) assign a hot key to any window and make the docking station itself disappear; 6) do more interesting things by combining the capabilities listed above. Window Docking Station software is compatible with Microsoft Windows operating systems and offers consistent user experience across all versions starting from XP (and even earlier) up to the most recent Windows 8.
How to Use? Please read the subsections below to familiarize yourself with various graphical and command line options of this utility and with typical usage scenarios to help you customize and automate your daily use of the Window Docking Station. Quick Reference This program does not require installation and runs from any place you may extract its binary file to. Window Docking Station can be configured using both a command line and graphical user interface as described below. Control key reference <CTRL+SPACE> Press to dock a window pointed at by the mouse pointer to a docking station in focus. <WIN+number> Press to switch to a certain docking station. Each docking station is automatically assigned a number key at startup, and its hot key combination is displayed at the dock's title bar (if successfully assigned). Pressing the same hot key combination for an active dock will minimize the dock station. Note that the default hot key assignment does not work in Windows 7 onwards as those systems make use of <WIN+number> key combination to select items from the task bar. <SHIFT+hotkey> An alternative way of docking a window is to press the docking station's hot key while holding <SHIFT> down. That will place the currently active window to the dock. <TAB> <SHIFT+TAB> Press to switch between docked windows of a docking station in focus in the forward and reverse directions, respectively. <ESC> <ENTER> <CTRL+TAB> <alphanumeric> Press to shift focus from the docking station to its current docked window. Note that alpha-numeric characters (if not handled by the docking station itself) may be re-directed to the docked window s input. <SHIFT+SPACE> Press to remove the current window from the docking station in focus.
<SHIFT> Hold while shifting focus to a docking station to prevent the station from displaying docked windows and thus cluttering up the screen. You may use this option to conveniently dock a new window, which may be normally overlapped with already docked windows. Graphical user interface reference Window Docking Station offers a minimalistic graphical user interface and appears as a window containing only the title bar as shown below. All interface options and commands are implemented via extensions to the standard system menu, which can be activated by clicking on the top left corner of the window or by pressing <ALT+SPACE>. Commands Options Docked windows Help and More The default menu item for displaying this document. Gather Windows The command to align all windows under the docking station s window. This command is useful for gathering stray windows unexpectedly minimized or positioned beyond the visible borders of the display. Save Shortcut The command to preserve the current dock station's configuration in a batch file generated at the dock station's working directory.
List Current Window First The command to place your currently active docked window on top of the list of docked windows (as it may sometimes be convenient). Keep Layout Check to preserve the screen layout of docked windows. Note that the docked windows will appear on the task bar in this case. Show Windows When Activating Dock When it comes to docking maximized windows, uncheck this option to prevent the docking station from showing previously docked windows each time the dock is in focus. Thus you may easily dock new windows by shifting focus to the dock while ensuring the windows to be docked are still visible. Set this option again when finished with docking. Note that maximized windows are never moved to the dock or with the dock. List Windows When Pressing Hotkey Check this option to automatically open the system menu with the list of docked windows when the hot key is pressed. Note that you can always highlight the current window item by pressing the <SPACE> key while the system menu is active. Dock Same As 1st Check this option to enable automatic docking of all windows created by the same executable as the first docked window. Remove Inactive Windows from Taskbar Some programs are known to destroy hidden windows under certain conditions. If you lost your docked windows and the "Gather Windows" option doesn't help, try un-checking this option before docking the windows next time. Hide Dock when Not in Focus Check this option to make the docking station accessible through its hot key only. The docking station will disappear from the task bar (and from the <ALT+TAB> list) each time the focus shifts to another window. Flash Dock Check this option to make the docking station blink in the task bar whenever any of its inactive (and thus invisible) docked windows starts blinking. Dock Same As Docked Check this option to enable automatic docking of all windows created by the processes whose windows are already docked. Keep Layout By Dragging Out Check this option to prevent a window from being hidden (and removed from the taskbar) by dragging it away from the docking station. Use either "Gather Windows" command or any docking method to bring such windows back to the dock (thus hiding them from the taskbar again). Dock By Window Title or Class This option is set automatically when the mode of docking windows by a window title or class is specified from the command line. List of Docked Windows To activate a certain docked window, choose its title from the list of docked windows in the system menu of its docking station.
Command line interface reference windock.exe Station Name Specify the name of a docking station to be displayed as its window title. Note that any string (including auto-configuration settings) that follows the program name and is not recognized as a special option will be displayed as a window title. Also note that using quotes will limit the window title to the quoted string. windock.exe {OUTLOOK} Automatically dock windows from all programs whose execution path contains the text specified in braces. windock.exe [Message] specified in square brackets. Automatically dock windows whose titles contain the text windock.exe (WIN+ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+X) Assign the hot key combination specified in parentheses to a docking station. Hot key may be a combination of control keys listed above and any alphanumeric key (case sensitive). Note that the specified combination does not appear in the window title if the hotkey is already occupied (and if the docking station failed to assign a next successive key). A hotkey is automatically assigned in case of a syntax error in the specified combination. Also note that this mode enables assigning any application a hotkey. This plus the minimize-by-hotkey mode enables the use of the docking station as a virtual display. windock.exe ^wndclass^ between ^ symbols. Automatically dock windows whose window class is specified windock.exe - calc.exe Execute the process specified after -- symbols. Note that that should be the last option in the dock station's command line, as everything beyond it will be treated as the command line of the new process. windock.exe cfg=xxxxxxxx Set up a dock station s configuration wherein x denotes 1 or 0 for each system menu option in their corresponding order (excluding "Gather Windows", "Save Shortcut" and List Current Window First as those are commands rather than options). windock.exe Email [- Message]{calc}{notepad} (WIN+CTRL+1) This example will create a docking station titled Email, which will automatically group all windows whose titles contain string - Message, as well as windows of all processes named calc and notepad. The new docking station will be assigned hotkey Windows Key plus Control Key plus 1. Users are encouraged to use Save Shortcut command to obtain a command line in a batch file and then edit it as appropriate.
Usage Scenarios This section furnishes a few examples of how the Window Docking Station can be typically used. Group as a single window Sometimes it may be convenient to specify a program name in braces through a command line and set up Window Docking Station options as shown in the picture below: As a result, all windows appear as one single window, both on the screen and in the task bar; and each time the hotkey is pressed (Windows Key + 1), the system menu of the docking station opens and displays the list of docked windows. A particular window may then be selected from the list (using numbered shortcuts on the left).
Group to preserve layout Set up options (primarily, Keep Layout ) as shown in the picture below to assemble a logically connected group of windows in this example, windows involved in software development: a console prompt, a text editor or file manager, and a calculator. You can bring the entire group to the screen by pressing the hotkey (Windows Key + 5) and hide the entire group by pressing the same key again. You can easily switch between docked windows using <TAB> or <SHIFT+TAB> buttons, and move the entire group by dragging the docking station window. This mode of operation is most suitable for organizing virtual displays, which, unlike the traditional virtual displays, show their names (and tooltips) on and can be selected from the task bar. Group by criteria Use square brackets to specify the text that is common to a certain type of your windows and make the Window Docking Station automatically combine all windows whose titles contain the text specified. In the example below all email messages get combined into a single window to simplify management of emails. You may even move the entire docking station to another physical display (if you have an extra one) for a consistent reading experience.
Note that you may configure a Window Docking Station once and use the Save Shortcut command to generate a batch file with the current Window Docking Station s configuration to re-launch the station with exactly same parameters later, for instance, at system startup.
How to Buy? Please visit www.hoopoesnest.com (WinDock section) for purchasing a license and retrieving a serial number. To register your copy of the program, save a legitimately obtained serial number in serial.txt file next to the Window Docking Station binary. How to Get Support? Please visit www.hoopoesnest.com (WinDock section) for the latest updates and contact information. Please direct your requests for technical support to support@hoopoesnest.com